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thucythucy

(7,986 posts)
Sun Mar 13, 2016, 11:39 AM Mar 2016

Another tragic aspect to the way the Reagan administration ignored AIDs

was how it affected people with disabilities.

One lesser known aspect of the epidemic was what it did to the community of people with hemophilia. The pharmaceutical companies knew early on that blood factor--the clotting agent extracted from whole blood that people with hemophilia take to control their disease--was potentially contaminated and thus potentially deadly, but rather than warn the public and work to solve the problem, the industry hid the truth and the Reagan/Bush FDA was complicit in that deception. As a result, fully one quarter of people with hemophilia in the US died in what is known in the disability rights movement as "the Hemophilia Holocaust." Not only did people with hemophilia get infected but, because they were unaware of the danger, some of them also unknowingly infected their spouses and lovers.

Much of this could have been averted if the Reagan administration hadn't been filled with homophobic bigots, and with sociopathic apologists for the pharmaceutical industry.

The Committee of Ten Thousand--a grassroots organization of people with hemophilia and their allies--finally tore the mask off this horrific cover-up. A good book on this is "Dying in Vein: Blood, Deception...Justice" by Kathy Seward MacKay and Stacy Milbouer.

To in any way praise the way the Reagans handled the AIDS crisis is an insult to the victims, their loved ones, and to the many courageous people who forced the nation finally to pay attention to a public health crisis of the first magnitude. We'll never know how many deaths could have been prevented if only the Reagans hadn't botched the initial federal response.

To think and say otherwise is a travesty that turns history on its head.

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Another tragic aspect to the way the Reagan administration ignored AIDs (Original Post) thucythucy Mar 2016 OP
I have anyways wondered what happened with an 7 yr old hemophiliac I helped treat in the early 80s uppityperson Mar 2016 #1
K & R mountain grammy Mar 2016 #2
The current ban on treating Lyme disease is even more evil lagomorph777 Mar 2016 #7
Everyone paying any attention has known that the Reagans JEB Mar 2016 #3
Hillary and her supporters don't get how horrifying her comments were Bluenorthwest Mar 2016 #4
Reagan's policies were disastrous for everyone except the 1% liberalfromaustin21 Mar 2016 #5
Senility? moondust Mar 2016 #6
This just makes me want to cry lunatica Mar 2016 #8

uppityperson

(115,674 posts)
1. I have anyways wondered what happened with an 7 yr old hemophiliac I helped treat in the early 80s
Sun Mar 13, 2016, 12:20 PM
Mar 2016

I figure he is dead because of his often he got factor 8 to keep from being crippled.

Too many people were hurt by the Reagan administration's actions on HIV.

mountain grammy

(26,571 posts)
2. K & R
Sun Mar 13, 2016, 12:24 PM
Mar 2016

Very well said.

To in any way praise the way the Reagans handled the AIDS crisis is an insult to the victims, their loved ones, and to the many courageous people who forced the nation finally to pay attention to a public health crisis of the first magnitude. We'll never know how many deaths could have been prevented if only the Reagans hadn't botched the initial federal response.

lagomorph777

(30,613 posts)
7. The current ban on treating Lyme disease is even more evil
Fri Mar 18, 2016, 04:04 PM
Mar 2016

Lyme is far more prevalent, and rather than ignoring it, the government, insurance companies, CDC, and the Infectious Disease Society of America are actively attacking doctors who treat it. Research is banned. Patients are not dying; they are being murdered.

Will we never learn?

 

JEB

(4,748 posts)
3. Everyone paying any attention has known that the Reagans
Fri Mar 18, 2016, 11:09 AM
Mar 2016

were cold hearted ruthless bigots especially on the AIDS situation. One would have to have their head deeply up their own ass to not know this or perhaps agree with them.

 

Bluenorthwest

(45,319 posts)
4. Hillary and her supporters don't get how horrifying her comments were
Fri Mar 18, 2016, 12:35 PM
Mar 2016

I'm still trying to figure out how anyone in our Party could think like that at all.

moondust

(19,917 posts)
6. Senility?
Fri Mar 18, 2016, 03:41 PM
Mar 2016

I've never before heard anybody suggest that the Reagans were some kind of leaders on HIV/AIDS. Quite the opposite.

lunatica

(53,410 posts)
8. This just makes me want to cry
Fri Mar 18, 2016, 04:21 PM
Mar 2016

The consequences of deliberate meanness can go in unknowable directions.

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